622 



Canadian Forestry Jour)ial, July, ipi6. 



oak and beech — comprise from 70 to 

 80 per cent of the total. Scotch pine. 

 the leading conifer, was limited to 

 the poorer soils which locally com- 

 prised rather extensive areas. In 

 the region south of Rheims exten- 

 sive limestone wastes occurred at 

 the beginning of the last century. 

 About 1807 a movement was started 

 to reforest these wastes. Little was 

 accomplished, however, until about 

 1830 when reforestation began on a 

 large scale. Just before the war be- 

 gan over 200,000 acres of this waste 

 land had been stocked with trees, 

 mostly Scotch pine. The outstand- 

 ing feature of this remarkable ac- 

 complishment is the commendable 

 fact that most of this vast area was 

 not restored to a condition of super- 

 pristine productivity by the state or 

 nation, but by numerous self sacri- 

 ficing owners of small holdings. 

 Year after year the small woodlot 

 owners upon clearing their land, 

 again prepared it — often by spading 

 or ploughing — for another forest 

 crop, fuly realizing that they would 

 never live to harvest it. The new 

 crops, as a rule, were established by 

 planting small seedlings furnished 

 by local foresters at a very reason- 

 able price, usually the cost of pro- 

 duction. 



Land Prices Go Up. 



That the line of endeavor along 

 which these private owners were 

 progressing was commendable and 

 producing results is shown by the 

 phenomenal rise of land prices. The 

 very areas which sold for $4 per 

 acre before afforestation began were 

 selling for $75 to $125 per acre just 

 prior to the war. The sad part of 

 this narrative is the regrettable fact 

 that these numerous areas of forest 

 land upon which so much private ef- 

 fort and money had been spent were 

 either destroyed or damaged heavily 

 during the battle of the Marne. 

 Areas of forest devastation and de- 

 struction do not occur in local spots, 

 but are distributed throughout 

 northern France and all of Belgium. 



The great size of the contending 

 armies, the severe, frequent and 

 often prolonged battles, and the al- 

 most stationary position of the bat- 

 tle line causes one to conclude that 

 the damage is so great that an over- 

 estimate would be difficult. One 

 may be able to comprehend in part 

 the existing conditions in northern 

 France from an announcement in 

 the bulletin of the Southern Pine 

 Association of January 17, 1916, 

 which states that "Bids are being 

 asked for 52.000.000 feet of southern 

 yellow pine by the French Govern- 

 ment, presumably for the erection of 

 10.000 houses which it has planned 

 to build in northern France follow- 

 ing the war." 



Forest conditions along the east- 

 ern front in eastern Prussia, western 

 Russia and Galicia stand in contrast 

 with those found along the western 

 front. The forests are larger in size, 

 cover a much greater percentage of 

 the total land area, and are com- 

 posed almost entirely of evergreen 

 species which comprise from 85 to 

 90 per cent of the stands, while 

 along the western front not more 

 than 20 per cent were evergreens. 

 The forest structure is also much 

 simpler, in fact, so simple and uni- 

 form over vast areas that it becomes 

 monotonous, especially to an Amer- 

 ican, who is accustomed to find from 

 50 to 100 species of tree in one lo- 

 cality. Scotch pine and Norway 

 si)ruce are the only common and 

 important species. The former oc- 

 curs in extensive pure stands on the 

 sandy plains and in rolling country. 

 It is at its optimum in the Baltic 

 provinces of Prussia and the Riga 

 district of Russia where it attains a 

 large size, possesses straight and 

 clean trunks, has uniform growth 

 rings, and' produces much pitch. 

 The Norway spruce increases in 

 abundance as one goes northward 

 or ascends the mountains. Beyond 

 Riga the \\niite Birch becomes a 

 distinctive feature of the forest, 

 however, not on account of its 

 abundance but rather due to its con- 



